Bill McMinn dies

When Rick Perry faced the toughest challenge of his political career, his down-to-the-wire lieutenant governor’s race with Democrat John Sharp in 1998, he desperately needed money for one last TV buy. Perry turned to an old friend and supporter, Houston chemical company executive William McMinn, who helped underwrite a $1.1 million loan. The TV effort helped Perry squeak by with 51 percent of the vote.

McMinn, whose money helped fund all manner of Texas conservative causes and candidates and who served as chairman of the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, died April 11 of cancer in Houston. He was 80.

He worked for five decades in the petrochemical industry. He was president and chief executive officer of Cain Chemical and chairman of Arcadian Corporation and Texas Petrochemicals. He also was a senior founding principal of Legacy Equity Group, LLC, a merchant-banking group.

He served on the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation — an Austin-based free-market think tank and lobbying group — beginning in the mid-1990s and was chairman between 2004 and 2007. He was a co-founder of Associated Republicans of Texas and was appointed by Perry in November 2005 to the Texas Tax Reform Commission. He also served on the board of directors of the Texas Institute for Education Reform and was an ardent proponent of private school vouchers.

“Those of us who worked with Bill will forever remember his smile, gracious personality, and unwavering commitment to principle,” TPPF president Brooke Rollins said, in a statement on the group’s web site. “He was a champion of this organization and the individuals who worked for it. He was like family to me, and I will always be grateful to have had the privilege to work with him and learn from him.”

“Bill McMinn played a pivotal role in the growth of the conservative movement in Texas,” said TPPF chairman Wendy Lee Gramm. “He helped us in so many ways, and provided extraordinary leadership as we began our current growth trajectory.”

William Arnold McMinn, Jr., was born in 1930, in Clarksdale, Miss., and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1952 with a degree in chemistry. He began his career in the petrochemical industry as a research chemist at Monsanto Chemical in Texas City in 1952, and progressed through a number of executive roles with Petro-Tex Chemical, Mississippi Chemical, Delta Industries and FMC Corporation. In 1986, he returned to Houston, joining the Sterling Group. He also served on several boards of directors in the chemical, nanotechnology and biotechnology industries.

McMinn’s wife Nancy died in 2007. Survivors include the couple’s four children.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, in the Chapel of The Brookwood Community, 1752 FM 1489 in Brookshire.